Buying a one bedroom flat which is all electric, best heating way?

textbook

There old storage heaters on the walls, what is the latest and best way to heat a flat? There is no gas in the flat, it's just electric. Underfloor heating, oil, convection heating- what is the best option?

Cardew

As you can read in scores of threads, all electric heating is 100% efficient. This means that you get EXACTLY the same amount of heat, for the same cost, from any electric heater from a £10 fan heater to these much-hyped heaters filled with any substance known to man and costing in some cases over £1,000 each. That isn't an opinion, it is a fact.


The advantage of storage heaters is that you can use them on an Economy 7 tariff for 7 hours at cheap rates and, as the name suggests, store that heat to use later in the day.


Being on an Economy 7 tariff also enables you to heat hot water and run appliances at those cheap rates.


Many people do not like storage heating, albeit many do not seem to know how to use them properly. The chief complaint is that they can 'leak' heat during the day.


If you decide not to use storage heating, there is only the different ways they deliver the heat to consider - they are all very expensive to run.

glentoran99

I use an oil filled radiator with a theromostatic plug attached

macman

The cheapest option by far is what you already have-NSH's and an immersion heater on E7. Any other electrical heating (i.e non-E7) will cost you about 350% more to run.
If necessary install more modern NSH's-though most people who say that they don't work well simply don't understand how to adjust the input and output.

HappyMJ

textbook wrote: »

There old storage heaters on the walls, what is the latest and best way to heat my flat? There is no gas in the flat, it's just electric. Underfloor heating, oil, convection heating- what is the best option?

The best option would be electric storage heaters.

Whether they are old or new they are still 100% efficient.

Newer ones are a little smarter automatically adjusting the output to give you heat when you want it. The older ones you need to manually turn the output down each night when you go to bed and turn it up again the next day when you want heat. If you forget to turn the output down at night you will lose all the heat that has been input into the bricks quite quickly.

As they are quite expensive I'd just leave them as they are.

matelodave

Use the ones you've got but learn how to use them properly. As said above they are the cheapest form of electric heating.

Just make sure you sort out your electricity supplier as soon as you buy the place and make sure you get yourself on the cheapest tariff by using a couple of comparison sites.

Changing to another fuel can work out to be very expensive and I'd doubt that oil would be a viable proposition in a flat unless you are on the ground floor and have got a place for the oil tank outside.

Cardew

matelodave wrote: »

I'd doubt that oil would be a viable proposition in a flat unless you are on the ground floor and have got a place for the oil tank outside.

I had assumed that the OP meant oil filled radiators, rather than oil CH for a 1 bed flat.

textbook

Cardew wrote: »

I had assumed that the OP meant oil filled radiators, rather than oil CH for a 1 bed flat.

Yeah oil filled radiators.


The current storage heaters do look a bit drab, but I guess buying new ones would cost a lot, and so probably not worth it as there so expensive! Maybe just stick a couple of convection heaters in to quickly heat the place when the storage heaters aren't pumping out heat quick enough! I like warm places!

Richie-from-the-Boro

textbook wrote: »

Yeah oil filled radiators.


The current storage heaters do look a bit drab, but I guess buying new ones would cost a lot, and so probably not worth it as there so expensive! Maybe just stick a couple of convection heaters in to quickly heat the place when the storage heaters aren't pumping out heat quick enough! I like warm places!

E7 is 60% cheaper with night store heat & water - all other forms of day rate electric heating are 60% more expensive. Set the input knob to highest and output knob turned permanently and completely off and an on demand panel heater to boost room heat as required, they are all the same efficiency rate but vary in function. A 2kW with adjustable thermostat runs from about £50. 'T Cut' or sugar soap will clean them up, alternatively lay the panels flat in the summer and a couple of light coats of Rustins with a hard 4" foam gloss roller will smarten them up.

macman

textbook wrote: »

Yeah oil filled radiators.


The current storage heaters do look a bit drab, but I guess buying new ones would cost a lot, and so probably not worth it as there so expensive! Maybe just stick a couple of convection heaters in to quickly heat the place when the storage heaters aren't pumping out heat quick enough! I like warm places!

I hope you like big bills as well then. If you use convectors on E7, or any other form of non-NSG heating, you will pay about 350% more per kWh, unless you are using them in the cheap night rate hours. Much cheaper to uprate your NSH's if required.